As you probably know, The Davos Question is a Youtube initiative where everyone’s invited to say, in one minute, what they think is “the one thing that will help make the world a better place in 2008”.
This week, adding up to the thousands of individuals who posted their answers on Youtube, many world leaders have stopped by the Youtube booth at the World Economic Forum to share their thought on the subject. Here are some examples, compiled for the diversity of answers. This clearly means that challenges are multiple, and that it’s up to everyone to take responsibility. Climate change is but one of the challenges; a recurring answer is, of course, education. I note the absence of the word “solidarity”; it seems to have been replaced by “individual responsibility” and “corporate citizenship”.
- Peter Piot, Head of the United Nations programme on HIV AIDS, says: take care of your sex life
- Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade, in French, says there’s no ONE thing you can do to change the world but there are ways to participate in its enhancement: interact better with your environment – your children, your poor…
- Astronaut Jerry Linenger inspiringly speaks of the need to tackle the problem of water
- Sali Berisha, Albania’s Prime Minister, is convinced that expanding freedom (in all ways) will make the world a better place
- Josette Sheeran, head of the UN World Food Program talks of hunger and children and sets an objective and a program: that no child on earth goes to school hungry. “Fill the red cup, please!”. In another video, she speaks of helping small farmers as a way to fill the red cup.
- Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel says education is basis of hope and development: ‘Education has to be it’, he says.
- Shimon Peres and Michael Chertoff (US Secretary of Homeland Security) both speak of the urgency to stop terrorism. Also about climate change, freedom of movement.
- Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, responds to Shimon Peres.
There is a total of 48 videos of leaders online, and thousands from individuals like you and me. In the leaders list, like in my list, women are seriously misrepresented.
In a tentative to sum up:
Respect Life. Enjoy it, admire it, understand it, preserve it, pass it on.
Smile and share, will ya! 